Miami Dolphins coach Tony Sparano just announced he has “moved on” from special teams coach John Bonamego, replacing him with special teams assistant Darren Rizzi.

Special teams breakdowns came in a “tidal wave” on Monday night, Sparano said after the game, but this had been an ongoing problem.

“I truly appreciate everything Bono has done for us,” Sparano said. “I think he’s an outstanding coach and a hell of a person and a really good friend. … It’s a hard decision to make because he’s a hell of a guy and I know how hard this guy works. Nobody works harder than him at what he does.”

And yet, after seeing three special teams gaffes lead directly to 21 points in Monday’s 41-14 loss to the Patriots, Sparano made the move.

Even longtime Dolphins employees are having a hard time recalling the last time a Dolphins assistant was dismissed during the season. It’s possible this is a franchise first, but we’re still researching that one.

“Special teams is a hard area because I think there’s a lot of hands involved in that area,” Sparano said. “Players have some responsibility in that area too, and the players change a lot in that area. … Our players also need to take responsibility.”

Rizzi, 40, recently began his second year as an NFL assistant under Bonamego, who had been in the NFL since 1999. He previously served as head coach at Rhode Island and New Haven, Sparano’s alma mater.

Rizzi also spent time coaching special teams as part of his duties at Rutgers from 2002-07 under former University of Miami assistant Greg Schiano. Rizzi spent four years (1994-97) as a New Haven assistant under Sparano, including the first three overseeing special teams.

A former tight end at Rhode Island, Rizzi spent time in Eagles camp before moving into coaching.

“This is one of the reaons I brought Darren here: He’s a very smart, intelligent guy that I think has his own way of doing things,” Sparano said. “I think that’s important, that he’ll have his own spin on the special teams area. He’s a high energy guy, a lot like Bono in that situation. Very detailed, very similar that way.”

Despite their low league ranks across the board, the Dolphins aren’t that far away from becoming solid again on special teams, Sparano insisted. He singled out young players like Reshad Jones and Chris Clemons for their strong work in that area.

“There’s a lot of good things on film right now from a special teams standpoint,” Sparano said. “It isn’t all broke. It’s important that we had some continuity there and fix the problems.”

By promoting Rizzi, the Dolphins avoid a drastic overhaul during the season.

“That isn’t what we’re trying to cause here at all,” Sparano said. “His familiarity is good. He knows our personnel, and I think he understands how to fix some of the problems that we have right now.”

Asked how long he’d been considering this change, Sparano just shook his head.

“I’m not going to get into how long and who, what, when and why and how come I did what I did,” he said. “It’s just something that I did, and it’s not something I just spent two minutes on.”

Sparano added he’s “not sure” if he will fill Rizzi’s former role by moving one of his other assistants into the special teams area or perhaps even hire someone else from outside.

None of that matters just now. What does matter is using the bye week to fix the problems that are holding the Dolphins back in an area Sparano values highly.

says:
October 5, 2010 at 2:38 pm
“Most of the guys evaluating guys play never even watch the game…but you’re entitled to believe anything you like”

Uh…PFF watches EVERY PLAYER in EVERY PLAY in EVERY GAME…

EVERY WEEK!

I watch every fins game 2-3 times. When I broke down the play with “4 missed blocks” (and other posters did too) debunking your claim, that didn’t work for you either. It sounds like you don’t believe anyone else, only what your eyes see, and when someone else cites what they see you say they saw it wrong.

You can’t have it both ways. If you claim that nobody knows what you know, then you can’t assume you know more then anybody else. If you claim only seeing is believing then you can’t claim you’re the only one who can see. If you cry that you’re entitled to your opinion, then you can’t claim someone elses opinion is “wrong”.

I don’t even know how to express how I feel today I guess heartbroken doesn’t even touch it. Firing the special team coach is only a bandaid on this problem. I have been a very loyal fan for almost 40 years I am 50 so I have seen many many games and I can’t remember ever feeling like this. The 1-15 season was horrible yes but almost every game I felt like we might pull it out. I have never felt this bad about a loss I will always be a Dolphin fan but this hurt will stick with me for a very long time.

Please, trust me, I’ve run that play myself dozens of times…not getting off a block to get to a LB IS a missed block on a GL play like that. That’s the way the play is drawn up, and it’s a missed block b/c it’s what makes the play work. If guys DON’T get to the LB, the play doesn’t work….just as we saw in the game. The LB who was SUPPOSED to be blocked made the play.

I was worried you found about six feet of rope!
NAAA !! unlike most of you i saw this coming . miami got away with one in minn , lost to ny at home and snowballed into that mess last night. the buffalo game was a close one too. miami is an average football team , middle of the pack.

Marcia, the 62-7 playoff loss to the Jaguars was the worst defeat in my life as a Phins fan because it was also the end of Marino. Last night will go away if we can correct somethings and win some more games sooner than later.

Tim that was a horrible loss I do remember it well. That was a playoff game and this is the fourth game of the season and it just feels different to me. I hope I am wrong and we can correct the problems and this loss will be forgotten but I just don’t think so. My son keeps telling me how wonderful Vontae Davis did last night and even that can’t get me out of my funk! Lol

The focus on the INT’s is not the one Marshall contributed to, it is the two that stopped scoring drives in the first half that would have made us look dominant.
Sit Henne’s asz on the bench and make him earn the keys that were just handed him. If Pennington was not on the roster I would let Henne stay the course, but we went to the trouble of keeping the vet here, use him, he can do no worse. he reads a D, reads progressions and is much better in the red zone.
FACT!

Phinmanski, Henne earned the job in training camp. The trifecta’s philosophy is if it’s close go with the younger guy. That and Henne has a better arm. The guy completed 75% of his passes last night. Some people are acting like it was 45%.

There is a lot day after nonsense going on today. The special teams debacle is what turned that game into what it was, not Henne.

They chose the wrong guy then just like they chose the wrong guy to coach special teams.
Go back to the pre season and see who moved the ball up and down the field best. It was Penny not Henne.
I will spare all my friends here and drop the subject.
I will wait until Henne is a very good player2 -3 years from now while Pennington rots. What a waste !

Well… A division title is just a dream now!!!
In a tie… We would have to winn the last 3 division games and NEED help
from NYJ AND NE!!!! WildCard is our only chance right now, and it’s only week 4!!!!

Miami – 400yds. NE – 265yds

So, they fire the special teams coach.. Which is the right thing to do (firing him earlier would have been much better!!!)
BUT… They give the job to his assistant??????
What!!!!! Don’t you think his assistant had some say in the current special teams??? Don’t make sense!!! He has to take some of the blame too!!!
Need to hire outside the Dolphins org.

At the game last night…. I would say 50-75% of us left after the blocked FG..
Most didn’t even stay into the 4th qtr!!!

we are only one game back from the rest of the teams on our divison .
we could easily win more games than everyone else in the AFC east and win it …. division wins only matter when your tied with another team in Wins !
get a life !!!! a go support a different team if your such a big Bandwagon fan ! WE DONT NEED YOU !

Gigi – Did you know that Belichick didn’t have a winning season until his 4th year? Did you know that he had over 7 wins only once during his 5 year coaching career with CLE? Did you know that his record in year 1 with NE was 5-11? Did you know that Belichick’s W-L record through 6 years of coaching was 41-55? Did you know Sparano’s head coaching record is 20-16 to date?

BELICHICK WAS A PROVEN DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR WITH THE GIANTS. DID YOU EVER HEAR OF TONY SPORANO BEFORE HE WAS HIRED AS OUR HEAD COACH? WHAT DID HE DO TO EARN THIS POSITION? I AM SICK OF THE MUSICAL CHAIRS WITH THE MOB ASST. COACHES NO ONE EVER HEARD AND NO ONE WILL HIRE ONCE THEY LEAVE. DAN HENNING IS AN ANCIENT ARTIFACT, THAT CALL ON 3RD AND 6 FOR THE WILDCAT WAS LUDICROUS.

Guys, we can’t put all the blame on the players…this ST debacle falls on the coaches. Why? Because of their “Scrub” mentality. Meaning, that they are obsessed with bringing in scrubs and prospect or developments. They seem to delight in picking up garbage players and trying to coach them up into solid NFl players. Sparano has no NFL coaching experience, neither does Ireland. They haven’t a clue and are learning on the fly. Sparano needs to stop settling for meager crumbs and start dreaming big, and demanding and expecting good play from talented players, and stop the obsession with scrubs. Why? Because this is not the time to be find diamonds in the rough!!! Its time now to build a solid good quality team, and this takes a good foundation of players…they players need to be the good talented players, and once you have that and have a solid team all around, then you can get cute and start looking for those developmental players…

So I completely blame the coaching staff for this. Why? because they chose the players they have on the team. They let the good ST players go, thinking they can just get scrubs from other teams, etc., and it has not worked. They have bad ST players on the squad, and they’re asking those kind of players to play like a good ST squad? Why the constant churning of the bottom part of roster? They know they have garbage, and if you want to be a consistant playoff team and SB contender, Sparano and crew better learn sooner than later that they need talented players as well, especially in key positions.

Amen about the coaches. That dude on the Pats, the guy that was a Dolphin (had no clue), had what 2 int’s. last night? Is he better than our #50 that stiff Carpenter? Hell yes! Evidently our wonderful coaches did not think so. I thought we should have gone after Bill Cowher or someone like that, but the franchise i.e. the Trifecta chose a paesan from the Cowboys no one heard of and the rest of his cronies. I am not impressed with ANY of our coaches except defensively, Nolan. They choose who plays, and obviously, we have no talent on special teams or they are playing for the other team because we did not recognize talent when we had it.

NJ1Dolfan (Mike E.) says:
October 5, 2010 at 12:41 am
Davone was easily our best player tonite. He converted what seemed like EVERY 3rd down, and did some great run after the catch, and I know Tim was happy to see him score a TD!

Oh yeah Henne had something to do with the loss i.e. 3 ints, one for a pick 6 and the 2 in the first half sucked the wind out of the team and the stadium. Mark Sanchez is way BETTER than Henne, he is younger and has what, NO TURNOVERS so far this year. He is improving. That is not the case with Henne. Keep tooting that Henne horn, he has no emotion, no fire and no brains. Strong arm yes, and that’s about it.

Bess looks like an ALL-PRO slot receiver. He looks as good as Welker ever looked, and he’s doing pretty much what Welker has done, give the QB a little separation, and turn it upfield for more yards. He made some tough catches last nite as well. Props to Davone, he was excellent last nite.

Phinmanski
October 5, 2010 at 3:45 pm
They chose the wrong guy then just like they chose the wrong guy to coach special teams.
Go back to the pre season and see who moved the ball up and down the field best. It was Penny not Henne.
I will spare all my friends here and drop the subject.
I will wait until Henne is a very good player2 -3 years from now while Pennington rots. What a waste !

Give Pennington Marshall and a more polished Bess plus his use of Fasano and I will show you a QB under control.
You guys act like Henne will be scared sitting on the bench for a game.
Some of the best QB’s in the league right now sat for 2-4 years.

Apparently Miami Fan is so enamored with anyone that has a arm since the Marino days, they are blind to the fact a QB does a lot more than throw a long pass. Pennington would put a bounce in everyone’s step.. something Henne has no clue of yet. Henne got two big games back to back to put himself and the Dolphins back on the map and failed. ST’s or not Henne did not deliver his end of the bargain. Pennington has earned one damn non conference game to see what he has before he is put out to pasture by everyone.

I am done for today. Thoroughly disgusted with the franchise except for the defense, my boy Cameron Wake proving to be a stud. The whole D played decent IMO. Bess looked great, the only issue with the offense was the lack of scoring and lack of leadership by the q.b. I thought the way we moved the ball in the first half we would have had at least 21 by halftime….only 7 thanks to the ints. The rest is puke inducing.

this is why we are in this situation every year wondering who our QB is cause we never stick with the same one for too long and let them learn. same with the head coaching, if we stick with 1 coach like pittsburgh did with cowher we’ll be fine, but its the press putting pressure on the team to fire the coach. lets get real here people this team has a stronger foundation now than when saban was here and when cameron was here. i like how the trifecta built this team, they are not loose lipped to the media and that is great!! GO FINS!!!

Miami has the 6th overall defense in NFL. Our offense is ranked 13th over all. This would suggest a pretty good team…but turnovers and poor ST play have lost us the last 2 games…games we should have won. We could easily be 4-0 right now…but our terrible ST play, and terrible OC play calls in crunch time and turnovers have killed us.

Defensively, we rank 20th against the run…WTF?!? We were top ten against the run last year, and now we currently rank among the worst? The Vikings, Jets, and Patriots have run on us…we’re just not the same team that stuffed the run. Something has changed. Odrik and Crowder back, with Starks back at NT should help. Once we get back to good against the run, then our over all Defense should be really good once more. But so far, Soliai at NT, and Starks at DE has not worked and the play of Misi and Dobbins has been mediocre at best against the run.

Offense- The neophyte coaches need to learn that they have to send their Qb a strong message. Henne needs to know from the Coaches that they don’t want the stupid interceptions, especially in these kind of games. He needs to be pressured. But who knows if Sparano evens feels this way…guess its time for Ross or Ireland to step in and have ameeting with Sparano and coaches and make it clear that they better get results. Ross expects a SB contender, and so does the Fin Nation. Sparano needs to get this, and transmit his sense of urgency and passion to the team. Enough with the developmental crap. We need results now, and mediocre is not good enough.

My posts are based on facts gathered since Henne took over last year.
No knee jerk here.
Maybe I have been thru more shyt with following the Dolphins since I am 46 and loved them since I was 7 years old. Fans like me who have seen it all take a loss like last night harder than what some of you can imagine is my only guess.
We should be so lucky to have Pennington on the roster, but are quite foolish to not lean on him one final run. Henne has plenty of time ahead of him and he has gotten valuable reps. One last time to the bench will not scar him as some suggest.

Youth movement is way over rated. Veteran leadership is irreplaceable.
You need guys who have been there and done that.
I am beginning to believe this group tinkers / churns the roster way too much.
Our interior lines on both side of the ball might have been better the first year the Trifecta fielded a team. Our depth at many spots is nonexistent, some not even explainable like Tight End.

The most glaring need on this team right now is the lack of team speed and explosive playmakers’. More speed is needed in the backfield and on the outside and ESPECIALLY in the return game! Our kick returners’. Bess and Cobbs, are by far the slowest in the NFL. They have zero chance of ever breaking one. On the highlights every week I see other teams player’s breaking off long plays, it never seems to happen here. We simply have to work way too hard and everything go exactly right for us to score. That’s a hard way to win in today’s NFL where you know mistakes are inevitable on long drives. Ronnie and Ricky are both big, tough runners’ but at this stage in their careers neither is a home run threat. Ronnie getting caught from behind on that run in Minnesota was hard to watch, any elite back goes 99 on that one! Note to Tuna and Ireland, next draft, SPEED, SPEED, and more SPEED!

OMAR KELLY was unsuccessful at achieving his childhood dream to become a super hero, so he figured he'd do the next best thing and become a journalist who fights against injustice, and searches for truth. After being bored to death reporting news and covering politics, he switched to sports.
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IZZY GOULD joined the Sun Sentinel in Feb. 2012 as a Senior Sports Reporter on the Miami Dolphins beat. He came to South Florida fresh off covering the University of Alabama football program, including its 2011 national championship team. More